How To Set Windows Media Player As Default In Windows 10/8.1

On both Windows 8.1 and Windows 10, Microsoft has set modern or universal apps as default for most file types. The Music app or Groove Music (on Windows 10) is the default music or media player. While the Groove Music app in Windows 10 is pretty good and it has been revamped with a number of new features, it still lacks a couple of features, and it isn’t as good as Windows Media Player or any other popular desktop player for that matter.

Even though Microsoft hasn’t done any major improvements to Windows Media Player for a long time, it’s still one of the best media player software out there for Windows operating system. The problem with the default Groove music in Windows 10 is its unpredictable behaviour and more importantly, takes good amount of time to open when compared to the classic Windows Media Player.

If you like Windows Media Player for some reason and want to set it as the default player in Windows 8.1 or Windows 10, you can follow the given below instructions.

Method 1 – make WMP default player on Windows 10

Method 2 & 3 – set WMP as default on Windows 8.1

Make Windows Media Player default on Windows 10

Step 1: Open Start menu, click Settings icon to open Settings app.

Step 2: Click System (Display, notifications, apps, power).

Step 3: Click Default apps. Scroll down to see Music Player section.

Step 4: As you can see, Groove Music is the default music or media player on Windows 10. In order to change the default player to Windows Media Player, click on the Groove Music entry to see Choose an app, click on Windows Media Player entry to make it as the default music player on Windows 10.

That’s it!

Method 2

Set Windows Media Player as default player in Windows 8 or Windows 8.1

Step 4: Select Windows Media Player entry in the left-pane and then click Set this program as default option present in the right-side to set Windows Media Player as default player for every file type that it supports, or click Choose defaults for this program option to make WMP default for certain file types.

We suggest you click on the second option (Choose defaults for this program) if you wish to set WMP as default only for audio files or individual file types. Clicking Set this program as default (the first option) will set WMP default for both audio and video file types that it supports.

Click the second option, check the file types that you would like to associate with WMP and then click Save button.

That’s it!

Method 3:

Use this method if you want to set Windows Media Player as default only for certain type of files. That is, you don’t need to open up Default Programs to set WMP as default player for one or two file types. Simply follow the below mentioned instructions to quickly set WMP as default.

Step 1:Right-click on the file type that you would like always open in Windows Media Player, click Open with, click Choose default program, and then select Windows Media Player to set it as default for selected file type.

For instance, if you would like to set Windows Media Player as default for .MP3 file type extension, simply right-click on it, click Open with, click Choose default programs and then select Windows Media Player to set WMP as default player to open .MP3 files.

Comments

I can’t believe of the suggestions that are in the web about making the media player the default player in win 10 NOT GROOVE that Microsoft wants Some of them you have to be a Microsoft geek, some need a third party program and some need a rocket launcher to kill that fly. I tried this it is easy, simple and it makes sense You have as an average user a choice and not Microsoft . Thank you it works for now AM

I’m in the same boat as Kelly Blackwell above. I’ve set Windows Media Player as the default but Groove keeps hijacking my computer whenever I open up a music file. I’m thinking of downgrading back to Windows 7 which is what I had before my “free upgrade” to this piece of c _ _ p Windows 10.